


The Beard

by falloutphan_7341



Category: NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: Eric grows a beard, F/M, I was going to make a pun in the title but it didn't work, Kensi.exe stops responding momentarily, Nell.exe has stopped responding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 22:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11000214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falloutphan_7341/pseuds/falloutphan_7341
Summary: When Eric decides to grow a beard over the summer, everything goes haywire.Originally written for the 2016 NCIS: LA fic exchange (http://ncislaficexchange.tumblr.com/post/150708040863/for-perfectpurls-good-morning-nell-kensi)





	The Beard

“Good morning, Nell,” Kensi greeted her as she walked through the door.

“Morning Kens,” she replied with a smile. She practically skipped up the stairs to Ops; Nell was happy to be going back to work after summer vacation. She loved the break, but she loved her work and her coworkers even more.

The doors to Ops opened, and Nell stepped inside. Eric was sitting at the desk on the far side of the room with his back to her; he turned around when he heard the doors open. When he saw Nell his face broke into a huge grin. “Hey Nell,” he said, standing up.

_He grew a beard over the summer,_ Nell realized, smiling too. “Hey babe,” she replied, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him. “How was your summer,” she asked when they broke apart.

“Awesome, thanks for asking. And yours?”

“Great; I went back East to visit my family for a couple weeks. I missed you a lot, though.”

Eric pulled Nell into a hug and rested his head on top of hers. “I missed you too.”

Just then, Nell heard a faint beeping noise. “Do you hear that?” she asked Eric, tilting her head up to look at him.

“Hear what?” He knit his eyebrows in confusion.

The noise got louder. “That beeping!” She let go of Eric and started searching for the source of the sound.

“Nell, I don’t hear any beeping,” Eric stated, concerned. “Are you sure you aren’t imagining it?”

It got even louder. “No, I’m not imagining it! How can you not hear that?”

“Because you’re dreaming. That’s your alarm.”

“What? No, that can’t—” Nell opened her eyes; the Ops center faded away, leaving her bedroom wall in its place.

It took her a few seconds to realize that the beeping from her dream was, in fact, her alarm, and that she hadn’t shut it off yet. She rolled over and shut it off, and stayed laying on her back for a couple of minutes before getting out of bed.

While she made herself breakfast, she reflected on the other work-related dreams she’s had since she started working at NCIS. Before her first day, she had a nightmare that all her coworkers hated her and they forced her to do all her work on a laptop in a separate part of the building. After that, she had dreams near the end of summer about her first day back from summer break, and strangely, they all had something to do with Eric. Well, not all of them. There was that one that part of it was about Kensi, but Nell didn’t dwell on that one too much.

This was her sixth end-of-summer work-related dream: five and a half of them were about Eric, three of them with herself and Eric already being in a relationship, and two of them with Eric having a beard. That couldn’t be a coincidence; none of it could be a coincidence.

She spent the rest of the time it took her to eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, and brush her teeth trying not to think about her dream. Of course, in most cases, trying not to think about something just makes you think about it _more_ , so that didn’t work. Once she was ready, Nell grabbed her keys and her purse, locked her front door, got in her car, and left for work. Since she still hadn’t stopped thinking about her dream, she decided to take the long way to work.

She turned on the radio, but there was nothing on she wanted to listen to, so she shut it off and drove in silence. Silence, of course, except for her mental recap of the previous night’s dream. By this point she hardly remembered the details, but one detail in particular was one she was sure she wouldn’t soon forget: the beard. The last time this happened, she hoped that Eric had actually grown a beard over the summer, and she hated to admit it, but she was actually disappointed when she saw he was just as clean-shaven as ever. She thought she had learned her lesson about believing her dreams, but she still wondered _what if?_

“Chill out, Nell”, she muttered to herself as she stopped at a red light. “What are the chances that Eric is actually going to have a beard this time?”

About twenty minutes later, Nell pulled her car into a parking space and turned off the ignition. She took a few seconds to collect her things from the passenger seat and the floor in front of it before leaving her car, locking it behind her.

It wasn’t a very long walk from where Nell parked and the building, so she was at the door about a minute later. She opened the door and made her way towards the bullpen. Ahead she saw everyone: Kensi, Deeks, Sam, and Grisha. Hetty and Granger were talking about something in Hetty’s office, but Nell didn’t pay them that much attention. “Hey everyone!” Nell smiled.

“Hey Nell,” Kensi responded, giving Nell a hug.

“Long time no see,” Grisha added.

“Is Eric in yet?” Nell asked. She thought she knew the answer already, but she figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Grisha and Sam exchanged glances. “Yeah, he’s upstairs,” Sam said, grinning just a bit too widely for Nell’s liking. So much for _it wouldn’t hurt to ask._

“Thanks,” she said cautiously, waving to the group and nervously climbing the stairs. She wondered what Sam and Grisha were smiling about. _I guess I’ll find out in a few seconds_ , she thought as she reached the top of the staircase.

The Ops doors opened, and she stepped inside. “Hey Nell,” came Eric’s voice just to her left.

She looked at the desk there and—was she sure she wasn’t seeing things? There was Eric, but he had a beard. _Am I still asleep? Is this a dream inside a dream?_ she thought. No, she was sure she was awake and this was real life. Then again, when she was dreaming this morning, she was sure _that_ was real life too.

_If this is a dream, how can I wake myself up?_ she wondered. _I mean, pinching yourself is supposed to work, but that would be kind of obvious._

She crossed her arms and dug her fingernails into the skin just above her elbow. She felt pain, but nothing else happened; she didn’t wake up, and the view in front of her didn’t disappear. This was real life, and Eric had a real beard. Wow.

“Are you okay?” Eric asked, concerned.

“Yeah,” she replied, “I’m fine. Why?”

“I—you just winced.” He mimicked what Nell assumed to have been her facial expression when she had scratched her own arm a few seconds ago.

“Oh, um, I just had an itch.”

Before either of them could say anything else, the desk phone started ringing, and Eric picked it up. “Hello? Uh-huh. Got it. Thanks Hetty.”

“Got a case?” Nell asked as Eric hung up the phone.

“Yep,” Eric answered. “I’m gonna go rally the troops.”

As Eric got up from his desk, Nell sat down in the chair next to his. _Well, this is going to be fun_ , she thought as she watched Eric leave the room.

Back in the bullpen, Kensi was trying to figure out why Grisha and Sam were grinning earlier.

“Why won’t you tell me? What’s going on with Beale?”

“Relax, Kensi, you’ll find out soon enough.” Grisha dodged the question with a smirk plastered on his face.

“Well, I mean we all know that she likes him, but this can’t be about that,” she mused, not really expecting an answer. “If it was, then you’d be doing this every day.”

Grisha shrugged. “Weeeelllllll…you’re not completely wrong.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked.

Before Grisha or Sam could answer, Kensi heard the telltale whistle; case on deck. She looked up to the balcony, and saw Eric in all his bearded glory. For half a second, she thought he looked hot. For the other half of that second—and all the rest of the seconds it required to get up the stairs into Ops—she wished there was some way to delete thoughts from her brain. _So this is why Grisha and Sam were so smiley when Nell came in_ , Kensi thought.

“Is there something wrong, Kensi?” Deeks asked, concern evident in his voice.

She turned around to face him. “I’m fine, it’s nothing.” She caught Grisha and Sam’s smirks behind Deeks, and she glared at them until their smirks faded and they looked away.

Walking into Ops made matters even worse for Kensi, because one of the first things she saw when the doors opened was Eric’s glorious beard. She stood on the complete opposite side of the Ops table and made herself look anywhere but the beard. Floor. Screen. Nell. Beard. Deeks. Screen. Beard. Floor. Beard. Screen. Deeks.

Before she knew it, she heard Grisha say, “Kensi, you and Deeks talk to the victim’s family, Sam and I’ll go check out the office.” She was so focused on _not_ focusing on Beale’s beard, she had completely missed all the facts of the case.

She nodded. “Deeks, I’ll meet you by the car. Nell, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Uh, sure,” she replied, puzzled. She followed Kensi out of Ops and into the hallway.

As soon as she felt they were out of earshot of everyone else, Kensi whispered harshly, “Can you please make Beale shave that—that _thing_ off his face?”

“I’m pretty sure he can do anything he wants,” Nell replied, and Kensi wasn’t sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

“This is no time for jokes,” Kensi whispered even harsher this time, which made Nell flinch a little.

“Oookay, why is this such a big deal?”

“Because—” Kensi swallowed hard before lowering her voice even more. “Because it’s hot, and that’s…eww.” She made a sour face, emphasizing her point.

Nell’s eyes widened, but she didn’t say anything; she opened her mouth to respond, stood there for a couple seconds, stuttered out “ Okay. Um, I’m just gonna…”, and scurried back to Ops.

 

_Well, that was weird,_ Nell thought as she sat down at her desk. She tried to put the conversation she’d just had with Kensi out of her mind for the moment and focus on doing her job. She opened up the bank statements she had just been sent and started scrolling, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Her right hand was doing all the scrolling, so her left hand started wandering towards Eric’s face. She didn’t even pay attention to what her hand was doing until she felt the soft scratch of facial hair under her fingertips.

She recoiled her fingers slightly, but evidently not far enough; when Eric turned towards her, his nose nearly hit her hand. He didn’t look upset, which was a relief for Nell. He looked more confused than anything else. Nell, on the other hand, was very embarrassed, and drew back her hand quickly.

Eric opened his mouth to say something, but Nell beat him to it: “Let’s just forget this happened, okay?”

“Okay.” Eric didn’t sound very confident in his response, but he turned back to his monitor anyway. Nell stared at Eric’s jaw line for a few seconds before doing the same.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to focus back on her work. She scrolled through another page and a half of bank statements, but she wasn’t fully paying attention. She found a few odd transactions, made notes about them, and kept scrolling.

_This is ridiculous_ , Nell thought after the second or third time getting distracted by Eric and his beard. _Just ignore him for now. You can deal with this later._  She turned her monitor slightly so that Eric was out of her peripheral vision and kept scrolling.

After an hour—or maybe a bit longer; she wasn’t really keeping track of time—her desk phone rang. “Hello?”

“Hey Nell, Sam and I are just finishing up at the victim’s office.”

“Great! What did you find?”

“Not much, but we’ve got a possible suspect; Sam’s sending you his name. We’re on our way to pick him up and bring him to the boat shed. How’s it going with you and Eric?”

Nell didn’t respond right away, but Grisha noticed. “Nell? Earth to Nell,” he called, and Nell could hear Sam laughing in the background.

“Oh. Um. Right. I found some odd withdrawals from the SunShore account. I’m sending you details now.”

“Thanks Nell. And by the way, I assume you noticed Beale’s bea—”

“Goodbye Grisha.” Nell hung up, cutting him off mid-word.

“What was that all about?” Eric asked, turning his chair to face her.

“Oh, that was just Grisha. Nothing turned up at the office, but he and Sam have a possible suspect, and they’re picking him up and bringing him to the boat shed as we speak.”

_Kiss him_ , Nell thought as she stared into Eric’s eyes.

_Not now, I have work to do._ She turned back to her monitor and began forwarding Grisha the bank statements she’d told him about over the phone.

_Yes now._

_Arguing with myself will get me nowhere. Besides, I thought I was going to just ignore him and do my work,_ she thought, blocking out the quiet echo of _Kiss him, kiss him, kiss him_ whispering in her ear.

After twenty minutes, she was starting to get overwhelmed. Instead of just giving in to the insistent whispers that had been plaguing her, she calmly got up from her desk and walked towards the door.

“Nell, are you okay?” Eric asked. She ignored him as she walked out the door; the truth was she wasn’t completely sure of the answer. She stood just outside of the Ops doors for a few seconds, taking in a deep breath and letting it out. She wandered around upstairs for a little while, trying to ignore her own thoughts and the sound of Hetty and Granger downstairs, undoubtedly arguing about something. _I guess ignoring him isn’t working,_ she thought, taking another breath.

Once she got her thoughts under control, she took another deep breath and went back into Ops. “Hey, what was that about?” Eric asked again.

Nell shrugged and sat back down at her desk. “I just needed to clear my head, that’s all.”

Eric seemed to accept that answer; he smiled and turned back to his computer monitor, and Nell did the same.

She was fine for the next half hour or so, but inevitably the whisper of _Kiss him_ bubbled its way back into Nell’s conscious. She tried to shove it down like she did before, but it wasn’t working.

_Kiss him._

_No. Besides, I’m trying to ignore him._

_Yes, because that’s worked out_ sooo _well so far. Kiss him._

_It’s not professional._

_There’s no one here. Kiss him._

_There are cameras. Plus, if the past six years have taught me anything, it’s that Hetty’s_ everywhere _._

_It doesn’t matter. Kiss him._

_I can’t take this anymore._ She took a deep breath and turned to face Eric.

Before she could say anything, Eric spoke up. “I need to say something.”

“So do I,” she said.

“You first.”

“No, you first.”

Eric sighed. “Okay. I noticed that you’ve been acting a little strange today, and I was wondering why.”

Nell reflexively wanted to reply _I’m not acting weird,_ but even she had to admit that she didn’t seem quite like herself today. “Long story,” she said shortly.

Eric shrugged. “We’ve got time.”

Before Nell even started speaking, she could feel herself start to blush. She took a deep breath, trying to figure out exactly how she was going to explain this to Eric. “I suppose I should start with my dream. Last night, I had a dream where I came in to work and you had a beard and I kissed you and you didn’t react, so when I came in this morning for real and saw you I thought I was still dreaming, so I pinched myself to see if I was still dreaming—I wasn’t, obviously—and it’s been hours and I still have this weird feeling that everything’s not quite right today and I was thinking about the kiss from the dream so much that part of me wants to kiss you for real but the rational part of me thinks that would probably be weird so—”

She was interrupted by the feeling of Eric’s lips on her own. Before she could register what was happening, she heard the Ops doors start to open. She glanced towards the door and saw someone in the doorway. Before she knew it, she shoved Eric away, and in the following few seconds she became aware of two very important things.

First, Nell realized she had overestimated her own strength; instead of only rolling a few inches away, she accidentally pushed Eric across the room. In an attempt to stop himself from hitting the wall on the other side of the room, Eric had somehow fallen out of his chair. Second, the person Nell had seen walking in was Kensi.

Nell let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, Kensi, it’s just you. I thought you might be Hetty.”

“Or Granger,” Eric added, pushing his chair off of himself and standing up.

“Nope, just me,” Kensi stated flatly. “What the hell was going on in here anyway?”

“Well, Nell was telling me about the dream she had last night,” Eric replied, dragging his chair back to his desk.

“Is this what you would’ve told Hetty and Granger if they were the ones to walk in here just now? Anyone could tell that’s complete bull,” Kensi said with a pointed look at Nell.

“It’s not _complete_ bull,” Nell defended. “I _was_ telling him about my dream, but that’s not the whole story. I was nervously rambling about how I kissed him in my dream and that I kinda wanted to kiss him for real, and then—”

“He kissed you,” Kensi finished.

“Yeah,” Nell said, relieved. “Or, at least, he was about to.”

After a short pause, Kensi spoke up again. “Well, carry on. Pretend I’m not even here.”

Nell smirked and rested her hands on the armrests of Eric’s chair, her nose almost touching his. “Now, where were we? Here?”

“No,” Eric whispered, his lips brushing against hers. “I think we were here.”

“Oh, jeez, I did not give you two permission to be this…disgustingly cute,” Kensi grumbled, turning away slightly. She glanced back a couple seconds later, and Nell and Eric were too involved with each other to pay Kensi any attention. “I’m just gonna go now,” she said, slowly backing out of Ops.

When Nell finally broke the kiss, she glanced over to where Kensi was standing, but she wasn’t there. “Where did Kensi go?”

Eric turned around, then turned back to face Nell with a confused expression. “I don’t know. She probably went back downstairs.”

_Oh well_ , Nell thought as she and Eric returned to their work. They both started typing on their respective keyboards again, but after a few seconds Eric’s typing ceased. Nell glanced over, and his chair was turned towards her.

Nell stopped typing and faced him. “Yes?” she asked.

“Well--I just was wondering--” Eric stuttered.

“Spit it out, Eric.”

He paused for a second before responding: “Why were you so worried about kissing me? I mean, you kissed me at the end of our last case before summer.”

“I wasn’t really worried about kissing you, I was more worried about Granger or Hetty seeing me kissing you,” Nell reasoned.

“Why? They already know we kissed--”

“They suspect we kissed,” Nell countered. “I don’t want to confirm any suspicions they may have about us with one isolated incident.”

“What if it wasn’t an isolated incident?” Eric asked.

“What?”

“If we were dating. Would you still care if Hetty and Granger saw us?”

“Why would that matter?” Nell asked dismissively. “We aren’t dating.”

Eric took a deep breath, trying to keep his nerve. “Well, maybe I want us to be.”

“Oh,” Nell said, finally understanding what Eric was talking about. “Then maybe I want us to be too.”

Eric breathed a sigh of relief. “And if I asked you out?”

“I’d say yes, but not until the case is over.”

“Fair enough,” Eric responded as he and Nell turned back towards their computers.

“Looks like you won’t have to wait for too much longer, Beale,” Nell said a few seconds later, picking up her desk phone to call Sam and Grisha. “I think I just cracked the case.”

 

Within two hours, the case was closed. “You know what that means,” Eric said with a smirk as soon as Sam called and said they had gotten a confession. He checked the clock on his computer, and continued, “What do you say? Late lunch date?”

“That sounds nice,” Nell replied, a smile spreading across her face. “I’ll drive if you pay?”

“Deal.” They both turned around and skipped down the stairs.

“Where are you two off to?” Kensi asked as Nell and Eric reached the bottom.

“Late lunch date,” Eric replied.

“Oh,” Kensi replied, surprised. She paused for a second before adding, “Uh, Nell, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure,” Nell replied, then turned to Eric. “Meet you outside?”

Eric nodded and headed towards the exit, while Nell and Kensi walked in the other direction. “So, what did you need to talk to me about?” Nell asked.

“Did you talk to Eric about the…” Kensi motioned to her chin and face, letting her sentence trail off.

“Not yet, but I will. I can’t guarantee that he’s going to shave, though. I mean, I can’t control his actions any more than you can control Deeks’.”

Kensi laughed. “Yeah, I get that. Just, um, let me know what he says when you get around to it?”

“Of course,” Nell replied. “Well, I’ve gotta get going; Eric’s waiting for me.”

“So, where are you two going?”

“I don’t know, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough.”

“Well, have a good time.”

“Thanks Kensi. See you later.”

“Bye Nell.” Kensi strolled back to her desk, while Nell jogged outside to meet Eric.

A grin spread across Eric’s face when he saw Nell approaching him. “So, what did Kensi want to talk about?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Nell stated definitively. “Now, I just want to have a nice lunch with you.”

“In that case, let’s go.”


End file.
